Hot in KC

As the mother of a one year old, I have been lucky to get away on two girls trips in the same month. All it boils down to is that I have a pretty stellar husband who makes it work. I am lucky, and I know it. Thanks, babe, for making it happen for me.

I went to Kansas City on Friday to meet Stacy from St Louis, Becky from Boston, and Leanne from Linneapolis (couldn't resist, sorry). We had hopes of getting the whole group together, but with young babies and their needs, a couple of the girls had to stay back. We are all Creighton friends and have had a running iMessage for about the last six months, so we are constantly connected and keep up on the day to day excitement with each other. What a busy time in all of our lives, between the six of us (the four that were there and the two who couldn't make it), there are nine kids under the age of four, with number 10 on the way. Although it feels like we jump through hoops to pull the quick weekends off, it is so worth it. We are all in similar places in life and it is great to have the support from one another.

We stayed on The Plaza and had a great time. With dozens of shops and restaurants within walking distance, it was a great meeting spot. We ate, drank (virgin for me), spent some time by the pool, and relaxed. Im already looking forward to the next one, great to see you, girls!

Stacy, me, Leanne and Becky at Gram and Dun on Saturday evening.

Father's Day

Today we got to celebrate Dave. Weekends spent as a family feel very few and very fast, between vacation, commitments, and Dave's call schedule, it seems they come around so infrequently. Lucky for us, this was one of those perfect weekends. Lucky for Dave, Father's Day happen to coincide.

We woke up and went to church, then came home for a pancake breakfast prepared by yours truly. We finished in time for Sullivan's nap and while he slept, we worked on 'thinning out' the den. We moved a hand full of boxes to the garage and then sat on the patio and enjoyed gorgeous weather and a bit of conversation. Dave then went to see his mom and I did a few chore before we went to a picnic with my family. Four of the five kids were there, we enjoyed delicious food and the usual fun conversation.

Im lucky to have a dad who provides great guidance, love, and support to both Dave and I. I am also lucky to have a husband who feels like his life has been fulfilled by becoming a father, and who shows it in his every action, toward me and Sullivan. Sully and I hit the jackpot with Dave, and we cant wait to show baby number two whats in store.

Happy Father's Day to my dad, my husband, my brothers, and my brother-in-law. What a great bunch of guys :).

Daddy and Sully with Sully's homemade gift. 

Dad with his girls. 

The King of Awesome.

A new fit.

Its official! Dave and I feel like shouting it from the rooftops... we are so so so excited to share that we are the proud new owners of our dream home. We just returned from signing papers on a house we will move in to this fall.

Its quite a remarkable story, really...it started probably the same year Dave and I got married. We would walk the neighborhood and pick and choose which homes we would love to own. I was much less picky, and in the end, we only agreed on about three. We would walk and talk and wonder how these homeowners were so lucky... what did they do to end up with these one of a kind homes in this one of a kind neighborhood. Fast forward a couple of years and a baby. Dave happened to catch wind that one of our three agreed upon homes would be for sale in the near future...so what do we do with that information? Do we knock on the door? Nope, to aggressive. Do we call them? Nope, to impersonal. I know, Ill write a letter! I'll make a connection (like that fact the homeowner taught Dave in med school), cross our fingers, and pray that what is meant to be will be. That was in November, I got a call from the homeowner who confirmed the rumor and said we would be added to the list, we were one of four couples who had shown interest. We were thrilled, but knew it was not a done deal. When I found out I was pregnant in February, I panicked, worried our home would burst at the seams. Not Dave, he remained cool, calm, and collected and encouraged me to remain patient. So, I did, as hard as that was at times, I remained patient. We got the call on Memorial Day that we were welcome to come for a look and have not looked back since. Two of the other couples backed out and it was down to just two of us. Fortunately, the asking price was right in our comfortable range, and we accepted as is, no questions asked. The other couple had a few stipulations and ultimately, the homeowners chose us.

We have had lots of ups and downs in the last few weeks waiting for things to pan out, there have been some anxious times, exciting times, nerve wracking times, but above all, the experience is one that neither Dave or I will soon forget. The current homeowners have been in the house for 43 years and after we signed papers today, our handshakes turned into hugs, all of our eyes filled with tears. All kinds of tears, tears of joy and excitement from us, tears of sadness and closure from the homeowners, tears of relief, sadness, and closure from the homeowner's daughter who has been helping to facilitate along the whole process, and tears of hunger from Sully ;)(who, by the way, has been our secret weapon throughout the process).

We feel so honored to be the chosen family. The house was built in 1922 and we will be the fourth owners. There is some work we plan to do, but we have vowed to each other that we will respect the history of the home and make sure all of the changes we make reflect that. We will do some cosmetic work right away and focus on the big picture long after the baby is born.

While will miss our current perfect little home, but feel so good about what we are going to, and we will only be a few blocks away.

Life is good.

The letter. I took a photo of this before I sent it with intentions
of framing it and hanging it in our dream kitchen :). 

Dave making it official. 

Soon to be home, sweet home. 

Nice to meet you!

Sullivan got to get a good look at his future sibling yesterday. We had our 20 week ultrasound. Sully had a very short attention span as the black and white images were not quite as entertaining as Pocoyo, but he at least got a quick look. Maggie and Anna came along, too, so when the kiddos got antsy she took them to a room with some toys.

We are really happy to report that everything looks perfect. No gender information (20 more weeks until we learn that), but everything is perfect. Its heart rate was 141 (Sullivan's was 145 at the same appointment), and it is in the 30th percentile for size (Sullivan was in the 70th percentile). I know the comparisons don't mean anything, but I still think it is fun to point them out. The baby was snuggled next to the placenta so the images are not as clear as we had hoped, but we are happy with what we got.

What a relief...Dave and I have a lot of exciting things happening in our life (more on that soon...) and couldn't be happier with the report. We are really excited to meet baby number 2, and something tells me time will fly in the next few months, he or she will be here before we know it.

Sullivan seeing his future partner in crime. 

Snuggling close to daddy.

Baby Munce.

The Munce family of 4 :).

Snip snip

Sullivan finally got his first haircut last evening. I had to give Dave about 6 weeks to warm up to the idea, but in the end, we both agree, he looks adorable with shaggy hair or a clean cut.

Sully went to my stylist who right away asked me how I wanted it styled, which completely stumped me. I asked her to clean it up a bit, and she started working. He did great, I think he had a few tickles here and there, but he handled them with ease.

Below are a few before, during, and after photos of our clean cut and handsome little boy.

Before 

Getting ready for the cut.

Look at all that hair! 

Sitting like such a big boy.  

Hanging in there.

Distracting with kisses. 

All done! 

Another weekend away.

My mom, Maggie and I planned a girls weekend shortly after I found out I was pregnant. I am being realistic and know I won't be able to take advantage of these great little opportunities once the baby is born. We had originally hoped all of the Connelly ladies could join, but due to some circumstances, only the three of us were able to pull it off. We will keep trying...

My mom went on Thursday and Maggie and I hit the road on Friday morning. We were all geared up and ready to hit the restaurants and shops. It never fails, we move nonstop, hitting everyones number one to-do item, and then some. We eat well (making reservations weeks in advance), shop efficiently, and sleep hard. 

We had dinner on Friday evening at The Bachelor Farmer, Leanne (one of my fave friends), Marlene Rance (one of my mom's fave friends), and Patty (one of our fave aunts) joined us. We had a great time, enjoyed good food and conversation. We shopped all day Saturday and had lunch at Yum in St Louis Park. We ended up at the Galleria and had a quick light dinner there. Sunday consisted of our traditional Sunday brunch at The Good Earth followed by a Southdale pop in and more of the Galleria. We were all successful, relatively speaking (I walked away with maybe two items considering my current situation). 

I hit the 19 week mark while I was there and have started to feel lots of movement from the baby. Moving and growing, this pregnancy will be over before I know it!  

My favorite part of the weekend was all of it. Maggie and I are so fortunate to have a great relationship with our mom, and each other. We don't have any major revelations or hit new hot topics simply because our conversations are constant in our lives, which is the best. Although I may miss the next girls weekend or two, Ill get right back in the swing of things as soon as possible. 

Here are a couple of photos from the weekend. 

Galleria shopping.

Sully's stats.

Sullivan had his one year check up today, and it was a doozie. After the routine stuff, he had to have four shots and a blood draw to check his iron level and for anemia. Although Dave and I both understand the importance of all of these things, it is still awful to see our little peanut so upset. We all made it though alive, and Sullivan was full of smiles in no time.

His stats are as follows... Head Circumference: 18.5 inches (69th percentile), weight: 19 lbs, 10 oz (8th percentile), and length 29.5 inches (38th percentile). He is a very busy baby who prefers to playtime over mealtime :).

After his appointment, Dave and I walked him through the park. We spent some time investigating leaves and just being silly. It was a tuff day, but we made the most of it and are so proud of our brave little boy.

A crawl through the park...bubbles and all.